Careless People: A story of where I used to work by Sarah Wynn-Williams – Book review

Sarah Wynn-Williams used to work at Facebook, that’s what makes her memoir, Careless People (yes, a reference to the C-suite, including Mark Zuckerberg) an insanely interesting and addictive read. Who doesn’t want a bit of juicy insight into what really happens behind the scenes of one of the world’s most well-known companies? Especially one that holds as much power as Facebook.

Opening sentence: We’re in the middle of an archaeological ruin somewhere on the Panamanian coast.

What it’s really like to work for Facebook

Originally from New Zealand, Sarah trained as a lawyer, worked for the UN and in the New Zealand embassy in Washington, and then set her sights on a job at Facebook. She actively campaigned for a role there, with the belief that due to Facebook’s growing dominance and power in the political landscape, they needed someone to navigate the global conversation with world leaders. That someone being her specifically.

As this memoir attests to, her focus paid off and she worked at Facebook from 2011 – 2017 rising to be Director of Public Policy. However, her dream job turned out to be a total nightmare, for so many reasons.

Facebook’s leaders aren’t the people I hoped they were.

Careless People is just packed with so many brilliant snippets of insight, from world leaders asking Facebook to work in their favour (she details how, then British Prime Minister, David Cameron asked for support against Brexit – obviously that didn’t go well…) the brutal American / Facebook work ethic that saw Sarah sending emails as she was in labour with her first child, to her casually being put forward as a candidate who might be jailed (but that’s just part of the job), to her terrible treatment by her managers Sheryl Sandberg and Joel Kaplan.

It was standing up for herself against Joel that would, ultimately, unfairly, be her downfall at Facebook.

The real Zuckerberg

Travelling is when you really get to know someone, and this is the trip where I start to really get to know Mark. I think he feels the same because during this trip, he friends me on Facebook.

Sarah worked closely with the top dog himself, Mark Zuckerberg and paints him as a tech nerd with a lack of morals and no real interest in politics, until, that is, he sees how Trump’s team used Facebook to essentially win (or certainly greatly aid in that outcome) the presidential election in 2016.

Rather than be alarmed at the misinformation being spread on Facebook with catastrophic, real-world consequences, Mark only sees this as an opportunity to pull together a presidential bid himself, for 2020. I remember reading about this in the news at the time. I feel this sums up all we need to know about him.

Well, that and the way Sarah states Facebook actively looked to bend to China’s demands on data sharing so that the ban on Facebook would be lifted and billions more users would come Zuckerberg’s way. As of today, Facebook is still banned in China.

By the end, I watched hopelessly as they sucked up to authoritarian regimes like China’s and casually misled the public.

Careless People is written in such a readable way, Sarah tells her fascinating story with gravitas and heart, there are some laugh-out-loud moments (one involves Mark, Big bird and the Pope) but I came away feeling a sense of danger in the way the world is heading, with companies like Facebook being so powerful when it comes to influencing politics and messing with people’s lives. It seems accountability, doing the right thing, or working towards a greater good is not high on the Facebook agenda.

Obviously, as with any memoir, Careless People is Sarah’s take on events but it has to be said, she tells a very compelling story. If you consider everything you know about Facebook, the world of the rich and powerful, and how those people stay rich and powerful, what she says certainly rings true to me.

• Get your copy of Careless People here;
• Published by Macmillan March 2025;
• 400 pages;
• Book review rating: